by Bob Nightengale, USA TODAY

by Bob Nightengale, USA TODAY

DETROIT -- It was the kiss seen 'round the baseball world Sunday, leaving the Oakland Athletics fuming, the Detroit Tigers apologizing, and an Athletics' star vowing revenge.

"We're not finished yet,'' Athletics left fielder Yoenis Cespedes said. "When I get back to Oakland, I am going to hit the ball hard against him.

"And I am going to kiss my bat.''

The Athletics, with their quiet clubhouse pierced by the sound of closer Grant Balfour cursing and kicking a chair, lost 5-4 to the Tigers, and now trail 2 games to 0 in the best-of-five American League Division Series. The next three games, if necessary, are scheduled in Oakland.

"This isn't going as we planned it,'' Athletics reliever Sean Doolittle said. "It's frustrating. But we've come back all year, there's no reason we can't do it again.''

If nothing else, the A's head back to Oakland with a Bay Area-sized chip on their shoulder.

They still don't understand how they can have the best record, get home-field advantage, but somehow could wind up playing one less game at home than the Tigers. They can't believe they got stuck with the noon ET time-slot, with players getting 7:30 a.m. wakeup calls, which translates to 4:30 a.m. for their California body clocks.

They can't believe that defensive whiz Coco Crisp, while racing in and trying to make a basket catch on Miguel Cabrera's fly ball to center, actually dropped it. The ball caromed off the heel of his glove, bounced into the air, in and out of Crisp's glove, and then just off his fingertips while trying to snare it one last time. The error resulted in two runs, continuing the strange circumstances in the manner the Tigers have scored this series. They have managed to score only one run on an actual hit.

"I don't know if I ever dropped one like that,'' Crisp said, "at least not to my recollection. I had a good read on it. I was playing deep. It was one of those judgment calls, trying to catch it like that, or try to slide into it.

"I felt like I should have made the catch, obviously.''

And, yes, there was that kiss, courtesy of Athletics reliever Al Alburquerque. Cespedes stepped to the plate in the ninth inning with runners on first and third and two outs. Alburquerque jammed him on a comebacker to the mound. He snared the one hopper. Looked at the baseball. Took it out of his glove. And actually kissed it. He then flipped the ball to Tigers first baseman Prince Fielder.

"I've seen it before,'' Tigers catcher Alex Avila said in amusement, "but not with a guy running to first base.

"Nothing surprises me with Al. He's like in his own world sometimes. You're going to see some crazy things on the mound when he's out there.''

The Athletics, with 12 rookies on their postseason roster, love crazy celebrations as much as anyone. They already agitated former teammate Eric Chavez last month playing against the New York Yankees with their exuberant cheering. But, sorry, the A's weren't buying this.

"I didn't appreciate it,'' said Athletics right fielder Josh Reddick, who hit a go-ahead homer in the eighth inning. "It got under my skin. I thought that was immature. It was not very professional. I'll just leave it at that.''

Alburquerque declined to talk about the incident after the game, but the Tigers were talking for him. And, believe it, they said, they will have a nice little conversation with Alburquerque on the team flight to California.

"You cannot do that, that's just not right,'' Tigers MVP candidate Miguel Cabrera told USA TODAY Sports. "This game is about respect. We know he's excited, but you have to respect the game.

"I will talk to him, and tell him that you cannot do that.''

The Athletics, Gomes says, likely won't say anything more about it, but believes there will be repercussions.

"He must not believe in the baseball gods,'' Gomes told USA TODAY Sports, "because baseball gods take care of those things.''